Scientology's own plans show it paid $37 million for a building to serve only 87 people - 2014-11-04

We told you previously that one of the announcements Scientology leader David Miscavige made at an October 17 gala in front of a few thousand people under a giant tent in England was that he had plans for a new "Advanced Org" in Australia.

It's a fascinating study in Scientology hubris. At a time when the church is shrinking, unable to attract people to the "Ideal Orgs" it already has, and with its drug rehab program Narconon increasingly under fire, Scientology doubles down by announcing plans for "Ideal Narconons" and new Advanced Orgs.

In Scientology's model, local "missions" feed newcomers to larger "orgs" or "Ideal orgs" where they go through a significant part of their "Bridge" — Scientology's long list of courses and training. For higher level instruction, they must go to one of several "Advanced Orgs" in places like Copenhagen, Los Angeles, or Clearwater, Florida. And they finish things off with a final course aboard the church's private cruise ship which sails the Caribbean, the Freewinds. Justifying new Advanced Orgs, at the upper end of that scale, would make sense if the missions and orgs below them were proliferating. But they aren't.